fat stigma

All posts in the fat stigma category

If you follow me on my Fat Heffalump Facebook page, you may have seen this article I posted yesterday. Photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero has documented the reactions of people around her, a fat woman, in public. If you go to Haley’s page, you will see the full suite of photographs called Wait Watchers as she documents people laughing at her, sneering, and generally just being douchey.

Now I don’t advocate reading the comments on PetaPixel articles (actually, on any articles about discrimination and bigotry for that matter), but I did, and I also saw them elsewhere, suggesting either that Haley just captured “general expressions” (not necessarily aimed at her) or that perhaps they weren’t deriding her because of her weight but because of the way she dressed (which is no different than most of the thin people around her – only fat people are considered “sloppy” in shorts and a top), her looks, or as one said “Those people aren’t looking at her because she’s fat! It’s because she’s doing x, y, z. But if she doesn’t want to be ridiculed in public, maybe she should lose some weight.”

Wait, what?

Regardless of the reason why people behaved like they did, they were behaving in a judgemental manner, and judging her negatively, which their expressions and behaviour showed.

Well, I can tell you now, I have further proof to add to Haley’s testimonial of the derisive surveillance fat people are under. Because some time ago, I engaged in an experiment with Stocky Bodies photographer Isaac Brown, where I spent time in the Queen Street Mall here in Brisbane doing things that I am normally likely to do in public, as anyone else is (reading, using my phone, eating a salad, eating an ice-cream) and Isaac blended into the crowd and photographed people’s reactions to me.

Before anyone says “But it’s because you have bright pink hair!” let me address that. Firstly, lots of people have bright coloured hair these days. But many of them are not ridiculed in the street. I am a fat woman with pink hair, I get a very different reaction from Jo Public than a thin woman with pink hair. Secondly, I currently have my natural hair colour (dark brown with a bit of grey) and I get the same treatment no matter what colour my hair is. Just two days ago I spotted a guy on the opposite train platform to the one I was standing nudge the woman next to him, point me out (brown hair, tattoos covered up, wearing quite a conservative dress and plain ballet flats) and they both laughed at me. When they realised I had seen them pointing me out and laughing, they both clearly knew they had been busted by me.

And finally, do people with pink hair or any other bright, bold appearance deserve to be ridiculed in the street? No they do not.

Others suggest people stare because “You look awesome Kath!” People do not scowl, laugh derisively, or have expressions of disgust at people they find awesome. They do not nudge and point. When people find me awesome, and yes, some do, they smile at me. They pass and say “I love your hair!” Their faces are open and friendly, not closed and hostile. Believe it or not, fat people are emotionally intelligent enough to be able to distinguish between negative and positive reactions to them.

I asked Isaac to send me some of the photos he took, so that I could share them with you. You will see quite clearly that these are not the expressions of people who are thinking “That pink haired, fat lady is awesome!”

Some people just stare.

Sometimes I’m stared at by multiple people, not connected to each other.

Some people show their disapproval quite clearly on their faces.

It’s not just women that stare either.

Even “nice little old ladies” stare and grimace at me.

Some don’t even bother to hide their laughter…

… until their companions stare too.

Nor do they hide their disapproval.

Even sunglasses don’t hide their disgust at the sight of a fat woman eating in public.

As you can see, it’s not just a phenomena that Haley Morris-Cafiero experiences. I do too, as do many other fat people who spend time in public places.

But what is most offensive is the routine denial of those experiences, as though we are either imagining the stares, disapproving/disgusted looks, the nudging and pointing and laughter, or they are somehow our fault. Having our experiences dismissed is actually part of the systematic oppression of fat people. Portraying us as overly sensitive, or imagining the way we are treated is also a form of abuse. It labels us as “deluded” or emotionally damaged. It is ironic, many of us do have emotional damage, not because we are fat, but because of the way society treats us as fat people, which includes the regular dismissal of our experiences.

The thing is, it’s not just me that notices the way people behave towards me in public. It affects my relationships with others as well. I have had a boyfriend leave me because he couldn’t handle being subjected to so much derision from strangers (yes, I am aware that I am better off without such a man!) and it often diminishes the enjoyment of time out with friends, because they see how people behave towards me and because they care about them, it upsets them and makes them angry, as they want to defend me and respond to the general shittiness of strangers behaviour. Not to mention that even though I’m mostly pretty thick skinned about it, some days it gets too much for me and affects my mood – it’s hard to relax and have fun with your friends when you are being subjected to the kind of derision and judgement shown in the photographs above.

It is sadly just another example of the way fat people are viewed as inferior in our society. Not only do we “deserve” the vilification, ridicule and judgement, but if we acknowledge it, we are viewed as irrational, over-sensitive or deluded.

If you are experiencing these things, you are NOT irrational, over-sensitive or deluded. Your feelings and experiences are valid, and you are not alone.

Note: Any comments denying my or anyone else’s experience with judgement and ridicule in public will be marked as spam and have you blocked from commenting. You are welcome to state that you are fortunate enough to have not experienced it, but DO NOT suggest that I or anyone else is imagining our experiences, as you will be doing exactly what I call out in this article.

Over the past few days there have been loads of pieces from awesome fat activists on fat and health, mostly in response to a couple of studies that reports that fat and fit are not mutually exclusive and that fat is not an instant death sentence. It has been really heartening to see so many responses from fat activists that highlight how important access to health care is for fat people and the prejudice that fat people face both in the health care industry and because of the myth that fat automatically equals unhealthy.

However, I think we need to stop and reassess what we are doing here. Yes, conflating weight with health has been a very pervasive myth that many people have used to justify fat hatred and addressing that is important. But I don’t think that it is going to help fat people in the long run as much as we need it to. Because no matter how many myths and stereotypes you bust, those who hate fat people are ALWAYS going to find a way to justify their disgusting attitudes. Be it health, fitness, appearance, the cost of mittens in America… there will always be something used to justify fat hatred.

We need to let go of constantly trying to meet the bar set by fat haters. If they say it’s because poor health, we spend our time proving that fat does not equal poor health. If they say it is because we’re lazy, we spend all our time proving that we are not. If they say it is because we are gluttonous, we spend our time policing and justifying our own choices for eating. The list goes on and on. No matter what myth or stereotype we respond to, there will always be another.

It is time we stopped looking to ourselves to be the ones to change to fight fat hatred. It is time we started demanding that those who hate fat people are named and shamed for what they are – ignorant bigots who sincerely believe that some people are sub-human and do not deserve to live their lives in peace and dignity. We, as fat people who are the victims of fat hatred have absolutely no obligation at all to modify our lives or our behaviours to suit those who hate us and to justify our existence.

You know who else believed that some people were not human? Heard of untermensch? How is it any different that some people believe that fat people are sub-human or inferior because of how they look and their bodies than it was believed that some people were sub-human/inferior because of their skin, hair or eye colour? Is not the belief that thin people are superior evidence of the belief of a “master race”? No decent, ethical human being would ever hold this belief. Honestly, what kind of person would sincerely believe that they or others are somehow superior to other human beings?

That’s what bigotry is, the belief that there is some kind of hierarchy of human value based on those with power and privilege being higher up than those without. It’s bullshit and we really need to stop buying into it – both externally AND internally.

Not to mention that every time we engage in the health argument, we are not only setting ourselves up to have to meet some kind of arbitrary requirement of health (which we owe NOBODY) but it’s also incredibly ableist. What about fat people with disabilities or chronic illness? What about anyone with disabilities or chronic illness? How about someone in a coma or other incapacitated state? Do they not get treated with respect and dignity simply because they’re “not healthy”? How about those thin people when they inevitably get sick or injured? Do they forfeit their right to dignity and respect at that moment?

Even if we buy into the whole thing that fat people “choose” to be fat (yeah right, like anyone would choose a life full of discrimination and hatred), that still does not justify the mentality that we are sub-human or somehow inferior to thin people. Lots of people choose to do things that lower their life expectancy – for fuck’s sake merely driving a car statistically drops YEARS off your life, let alone all of the wild and extreme things human beings do to their bodies. Just because someone smokes or skateboards or jumps out of perfectly good planes doesn’t mark them as lesser human beings, so why should it apply that way to fatness? Because again, it’s not at all about health. It’s not at all about life expectancy. Fat hatred is simply about a fairly young (only about a hundred years) cultural stigmatisation of people based solely on their appearance, because someone, somewhere decided that money could be made by frightening people into trying to control their appearance. All because someone saw money (and power, let’s not forget the intersectionality of the control of women in fat hatred) in getting people to buy products, diets, gadgets, pills and schemes to change their bodies, we now have a culture that marks fat people as sub-human.

No, this is about creating hoops for fat people to jump through so that we are not allowed to EVER live our lives with the freedom and dignity that is our right as is every human’s right. And we must stop engaging with it. We must stop believing that we have an obligation to prove our health, to prove our lives meet some kind of arbitrary standard placed on us to prevent us being marked as inferior. Instead of arguing that fat people are not unhealthy/lazy/gluttonous/etc, we need to be repeating over and over and over that to label any human being as inferior based on their health, their appearance, their size, their choices in food or physical activity or any other arbitrary measure that is nobody’s business but their own is bigotry. We need to be naming and shaming people who honestly believe that they have the right to label us as sub-human/inferior. We need to be reclaiming our right to live our lives in our own bodies without interference or intervention from anyone.

But most of all we need to believe that of ourselves. We need to be able to walk through this world that is rife with prejudice against us with our heads held high in the knowledge that we are not sub-human, we are not inferior, that we are as valuable and worthy as any other human being on the planet.

YOU are as valuable and worthy as any other human being on this planet. Your life is yours. Live it for you, not to prove that you’re not a stereotype.

There’s a new book about fat on the block, and I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy (ask your local library if they’ve got it, if not, ask them if they can get it in for you) and having a read. It is Fat by Deborah Lupton.

It’s not perfect, there’s quite a bit of privilege denial (ugh, thin privilege) and she completely misses the point about much of fat activism a fair bit, but it has been giving me some real food for thought.

One of the things it has triggered a lot of thinking about lately is how those of us with fat bodies negotiate our way through the physical spaces of the world. I got to thinking about just how conscious I am of the space my body takes up, and how I have to negotiate my body in a world that marks me as “abnormal”. The more I paid attention to it, the more I noticed that almost every aspect of my life is framed around this process of moving my body around in the world.

People with thin privilege do not see that as well as the general stigma and shaming around having a fat body, the act of simply existing in a fat body is something that constantly has to be monitored so as to minimise further shaming and stigma.

Even at home it starts…

The first thing I do in the morning is jump in the shower. In my flat, the shower stall is quite small, smaller than the one I had in my previous home. As I get in to the shower, the glass door sometimes swings wide open as I bump it, which means water sprays out onto the bathroom floor. After my shower I get dressed in clothes that I have had a lot of difficulty to find (correct fit but also clothes that I like and reflect how I wish to dress, and are suitable for the place I intend to wear them). Once dressed and shod and ready to leave the house, I grab my handbag, which I had some difficulty finding one with a long enough shoulder strap that it would fit cross body, so that I could have my hands free. As I leave my building I squeeze through a space between the stairwell and the garden edge, that is cut to narrower than my body.

I walk to the train station, often facing abuse that early from cars that pass me, or if nothing else stares when I get to the train station. I sit down on the benches on the platform. People usually avoid sitting next to me, and often make it clear that they find me repulsive. I wait for the train, usually catching up with Twitter while I wait. Once I get on the train, I am lucky enough to get on at the second station so there are usually plenty of seats. I sit on one facing the direction of travel, move close to the window and put my bag on my lap or between my feet. My body, while very large, does not take up more than one seat width, though my shoulders do a little. I usually read while commuting. I make my body take up as little space as possible. As people get on the train, and it begins to fill, I notice them looking for seats anywhere but me. Some of them sigh or tsk as they pass me. Many would rather stand, or sit next to a man with his legs widely spread and his newspaper out open than sit next to me, as though my fat is contagious. I see them staring (I wear sunglasses which hide my eyes so they don’t know which way I am looking) sometimes they nudge the person they are travelling with and not-so-subtly point me out. Semi-regularly I catch someone photographing me on their smartphone. Occasionally if I don’t have my iPod on, I hear someone say something like “If it wasn’t for fatso there, we would have more seats.”

When I get to my destination, I leave the train and walk through the station. I walk down the stairs to the subway, no slower than most other people, but there is always someone who huffs and puffs behind me like I am holding them up. Usually my speed is determined by the people in front of me, but the eyes on me say “Fatty you’re holding people up.” Sometimes people even say this out loud. As I line up for the GoCard gates, I am acutely aware that my body only just fits through the gates, and when I am wearing my bag across my body I have to adjust it to be in front of me so that I fit.

I walk to work, still facing comments, nudges and stares from strangers. As I walk into my building and get into the elevator, often people eye me up and down, sigh or tsk as if they’re offended at the amount of space I take up in the lift. When I get to my desk, the standard office chairs are not wide enough between the arms for me to sit comfortably, in fact, they’re not wide enough for MOST people to sit comfortably, almost everyone in the office has a different brand chair to the “standard” but as the fattest woman I’m the one looked at askew for using a different chair.

Anywhere I walk in public I constantly have to be aware of the space I am taking up. I am expected to apologise for not fitting between groups of people crowding a walkway, or through the gaps in chairs in the building’s food court area if I go to buy a coffee or my lunch. Furniture is arranged so that it is too narrow for my body to pass through, and I often have to move chairs, squeeze sideways or ask people to move because I don’t fit the designated space for a body. Bathroom stalls are narrow, the sanitary bins often dig into my side if they are not far back enough. Meeting anyone in a doorway means that I must again apologise for my size, because we won’t both fit through at the same time.

The kitchen and bathroom basins in our office building force me to lean over them and my belly gets wet from water people have slopped there beforehand and not cleaned up. If I go into shops, I have to manoeuvre my way around racks, displays and other people who are all closer together than fits my body. Chairs provided in public spaces are either too narrow for me, or too flimsy or both. If I go to the movies, the chairs there are uncomfortable, older theatres have narrow seats with inflexible arm rests that dig into my sides, and again I face the constant tsks of disapproval from strangers for sitting in chairs near where they want to sit, even though none of me protrudes out to other chairs except my shoulders, which would be the same if I were thin. The same goes for restaurants and other places with public seating – either seats are uncomfortable for me, or I get shamed for taking up too much space.

If I want to eat in public, I have to decide whether I have the sanity points to deal with comments people make, or more stares and nudges. Often some of the rudest comments or behaviour comes from the staff of the place I am purchasing food. I quickly work out the places I can go where they won’t shame me for buying any food, and never return to those that do, if I have a choice. In supermarkets, people stare into my trolley/basket and don’t hide their disapproval at finding food in there. Sometimes they make comments about foods I have chosen, either chastising me if they deem it unhealthy, patronising me if they decide it is healthy. I have even had people remove food from my trolley, scolding me that I “don’t need it”. I always use the self checkout units at the supermarket, even if there are cashiers free, because it’s not worth putting up with the comments the cashiers make, or the scrutiny of the shoppers behind me.

It even affects my friendships and relationships. One ex-boyfriend left me because he couldn’t tolerate the stares and nudges in public. Several of my friends have told me that they find themselves getting angry when they are out with me, because they see how people behave. I find myself getting angry after a few hours in a public place like a shopping centre, because I’m sick of being stared at and openly judged, which ruins my enjoyment of time out with my friends.

When I take a walk or a bike ride along the beautiful waterfront parklands near my house, I get more stares, more comments. People stop me to make patronising comments “encouraging” weight loss. One afternoon I had stopped at a picnic table to rummage through my bag for my purse when a woman came up to me, indicated I should take my earbuds out and then said “You are doing SO well, keep going and you will lose ALL that weight.” She didn’t like it when I responded “Mind your own business, I’m quite happy with my body, now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go buy fish and chips for dinner.” In the heat of the past few weeks I have packed a salad in a lunch box and taken it down to the waterfront picnic tables to eat in the sea breeze, much more pleasant than the heat of my home. People stare and make comments about “people like that eating”.

Most people parrot “Well just lose weight then!” with no actual experience in what it is like to try to make a fat body smaller, or no true knowledge of how a fat person lives. They believe the stereotypical myth of fat people rather than take the time to actually know what a fat person’s experiences are, what it is like to live in a fat body or to even believe not just fat people, but science that tells us that 95% of people can not lose weight permanently. Instead of making the world variable enough to fit all of us, they insist that we make ourselves fit the world.

This is why when someone says for the millionth time “But what about your health!?!” I get angry. What about our health? Do people really think that stigma and shaming, and a world that is deeply uncomfortable for fat people is actually good for anyone’s health? Do they really think that by not allowing us to live our lives in peace and dignity, we’re going to suddenly go “Oh wait! I should get thin!” as if we have never tried it? It is also why when people parrot the old “Just put down the cheeseburger and get off the couch” bullshit, I get angry. Every morsel we eat is policed, and every moment in public is too. Do they really think that this helps us live full, happy lives? Do they really believe that they have the RIGHT to intervene in our lives?

There is not a day goes by without these micro-aggressions coming my way, as they do for most very fat people. I don’t share these things so that people feel sorry for me, that’s not what I want at all. I want to highlight just how fat stigma and shaming forces fat people to spend their whole lives mitigating unpleasant, embarrassing or painful incidents caused by a culture that refuses to share its space with them. There IS plenty of space for all of us, big or small, on this planet. The problem is that fatness has been so demonised, so dehumanised that everyday people feel they have the right to be police AND judge, jury and executioner for fat people in the world.

I never feel discomfort because of my fat body. I constantly feel discomfort because of the way the world treats me and refuses to accommodate me because of my fat body.

Earlier today this post raced through my online networks like a brush fire. With good reason, it’s an excellent piece that really lays out how fat hate has permeated so many people’s attitudes, and makes clear reasons why people need to think about what they are saying and what kind of stigma they are placing on the shoulders of fat people.

But I’m also a public health scholar. I’m doing my Master of Public Health in Maternal Child Health. Obesity is a chronic disease that we talk about in nearly every class. We talk about markers for childhood obesity, what leads to adult obesity, and how to curb this epidemic.

The comment does go on further and she argues with several people who call her out on this fat hating crap. You can go and look at it if you like, the link is up there in the first sentence. You can see how spectacularly she misses the entire point of the piece for yourself if you like.

I won’t go into the ableism and classism of the attitudes of people like the commenter here, as they both deserve posts of their own. What I want to do tonight is address the attitude that “obesity is a chronic disease” and that we need to “curb this epidemic”. *cough* eugenics *cough*

Not about how this is complete and utter bullshit that other people have busted more eloquently and thoroughly than I could ever do, but how people like this woman are so fucking blind to the hate that they spew. I mean, this bigot has just compared fatness (I refuse to use the word obesity to describe our fat bodies – same goes to any other medicalised word to describe physical size) to “cancer and heart disease and communicable diseases”. I shit you not. How anyone can fail to see this as hatred is beyond me.

Let’s break it down with some statements…

My fat body is not diseased.

I do not have/suffer obesity. I am a fat person.

I am not a diseased person because I am fat.

My fat body is not something to be prevented, cured or eradicated.

I do not need anyone, be they organisation, company or individual to try to rid me of my body.

My fat flesh is part of me, it is not some parasite to be excised.

My fat flesh is not a virus to be vaccinated against, it is my body.

I will never again give anyone the power of starving my fat off my body, with absolutely no regard to the damage the methods of starvation cause on my body long term.

I will never again allow anyone to force me to apologise for my body.

I will never again kneel in subjugation to those who feel they are superior to me because of my fat body.

My fat body is not a contagion to be quarantined from “decent” society.

My fat body is not an affliction, a blight on humanity.

My fat body is not a mark of shame, or an indicator of failure.

My fat body is not a communicable disease, nor is it a cancer.

My fat body is ME and I have a right to live my life without vilification and stigma.

Anyone who seriously believes that fat bodies are any of the things above or that fat people have a debt to humanity to starve or punish themselves to meet other people’s aesthetic standards is a fat hating bigot. It’s time we stopped dancing around the subject and named them for what they are. No one of us has to be polite or respectful to people who believe that we are lesser than others because of the size, shape, ability and function of our bodies. We don’t have to justify our existence, our happiness, our peace, our dignity to ANYONE on this earth.

It’s time we cut the crap with the whole “agreeing to disagree” rubbish and allowing people to be “entitled to their opinions”. No, I don’t have to agree to anything with a person who treats me as sub-human. Nobody is entitled to an opinion that vilifies and stigmatises another human being. Our rights as human beings get priority over opinion, every single time.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the assumptions people make about living in a fat body. It’s important to say living IN a fat body and not living WITH a fat body, because we don’t cohabit with our fat bodies, we inhabit them. These thoughts have been spurred on by repeated statements I’ve read from people decrying how we must be so miserable, uncomfortable and in pain simply because we have fat bodies, that we are so unhealthy simply by having fat bodies, that our quality of life must be just terrible.

I want to break some of those erroneous assumptions about living in a fat body down. I want to talk about how it feels to live in a fat body. Of course, there will always be a certain subset of the population who will tell us that we are in denial, that we are lying or that we have no idea what it feels like to live in our own bodies. They’re dickheads, and I don’t care what they think. But I want to talk to you, fellow fats, about thinking about how you feel in your fat body,

Now I can only talk about how it feels in MY fat body, because this is the only body I have lived in. How I feel in my fat body is influenced by my being a woman, by my whiteness, my cis-genderedness, my able-bodiedness, my heterosexualness and so on. I don’t speak for anyone else’s body, but if I talk about how I feel in mine, I’m sure it will ring true for many other fatties and then you are all welcome to share your own perspectives in the comments (remembering the golden rules of this blog – no promoting weight loss, no general negativities about fat bodies and check your privilege).

So, what are a few of the commonly held assumptions about living in a fat body? I’ll come up with the ones I can think of, and you’re welcome to add more in the comments for me to touch on in another post. So here we go:

In every fat body, there is a thin person trying to get out.

No, no there’s not. In every fat body there is a human being trying to live their life in dignity and peace, with general respect as a human being. Many fat people will confuse this with a thin person, because thin people are usually awarded the privilege to live their life in dignity and peace, with general respect as a human being. So they try to become thin to get that respect, dignity and peace, rather than demanding something that is already theirs as a human right. Mostly because we’re led to believe that thinness is something that can be achieved, that it’s something within our control. Attempting to become thin won’t solve the problem of fat stigma, but ending fat stigma certainly will.

Having a fat body is like carrying around a 2o/50/100/whatever lb/kg sack of potatoes/dirt/lard whatever.

Wait, the average adult skeletal structure weighs about 20lbs right? So is having a skeleton like carrying around a 2olb weight? No it’s not. Fat bodies are not attached to us, like some kind of extra luggage – they ARE us. Our whole bodies hold ourselves up – bones, muscle, organs, skin, fat, everything – it’s all part of a complex machine that propels us around our lives. If you hand me 50lbs, I’m going to feel it’s weight, because it is not part of me. But 50lbs of my own body weight (or whatever number you choose) is part of me, and it has it’s own function in my body. The only time I’ve felt like I’m carrying a burden is when I believed I was worthless because I was fat. That wasn’t the physical weight of my body, it was the weight of stigma.

Fat bodies feel sloppy and gross.

My fat body is soft and warm, thick and both firm and pliant. There is a full firmness to my body, but at the same time, it gives and moves as I move and people or objects move against me. To hug my body is to receive a hug of substance, or as a friend of mine’s toddler calls it, snugglehugs. My ex used to refer to cuddling me as being “bosomy”. My body is pleasant and anything but “gross”.

Fat bodies are “weighed down” by gravity and it makes them unable to move properly.

If this were true, none of us would be able to stand upright or move. If there was some kind of pound by pound ratio to how gravity pulls a creature down… how do you explain elephants being able to walk and run? Or something heavy but thin, like… a giraffe! Giraffes weigh over 3000lbs. Maybe it IS true and fat people have super-human strength. I can jump, ride a bike, climb a ladder… I must be Super Fatty.

Fat bodies are always in pain from carrying around extra weight.

No. I am very fat and I feel no pain except when I do something stupid, like lifting stuff at work with my back and not my legs, or kicking at a ball of paper and missing, giving myself that awful over-extended kneecap pain thing. (Yeah I know, I’ll cop to being fairly unco-ordinated!) I don’t suffer back pain, but I have a friend who is half my weight and he has suffered back pain since his mid-20’s. Fat people who are in pain usually suffer pain because they have an illness or an injury, just like thin people who suffer pain. Nobody bats an eye at some thin guy with a bad back, he’s just unfortunate, but if a fatty complains of any type of ache, oh it’s because you’re a big fat lardy arse. All of us will suffer illness or injury at some point in our lives, it’s part of living, and part of getting older. People of all sizes deal with back pain, sore hips, knees and ankles. (Another friend of mine is TINY and has the dodgiest hips I’ve ever encountered – she’s always sore.) As I get older, I am less flexible and take a bit longer to heal an injury than I did in my youth, but who doesn’t?

Fat people just sit around eating all the time.

God I wish! I’d love to be able to stop still a bit more. But between work, socialising, my activism, and generally just living my life, I’m on the go most of the time. I’d love more time to sit and read, or catch up on the growing mountain of DVD’s beside my computer, or just snooze on my balcony. I have lived in my new home for over 4 months and I’m yet to have spent time sitting on my balcony reading, something I LONG to do. Most fatties I know (and I know a lot of fatties these days) are equally busy. After all, try organising a get together for fatties – I can never get us all in the one place at the same time. As for the eating all the time – it has been proven that fat people eatno more than thin people. We are not just stomachs with mouths – despite the mass media portraying us that way.

Fat must be burnt off the body.

This one bothers me the most. My fat flesh is not something to be burned or cut off of my body, as though it is a parasite or an infection. It IS my body. It is part of who I am. It is as much part of me as my brain, my heart, my bones, my eyes. It is not excess. There is exactly as much of me as there needs to be.

These are just a few of the assumptions about fat people that I’ve been thinking about lately. So what myth about fatness bothers you? What myth are you carrying around that you could let go of?

Before we continue, if you’re not sure what thin privilege is, don’t expect me to educate you on it. You’ve got access to the internet, you know what Google is, clearly you have enough literacy to read this blog, so you can go and educate yourself on the subject. And if you think it doesn’t exist, then you haven’t educated yourself enough yet. I’ll still be here when you have, no need to hurry, but please, don’t waste my time and that of everyone else reading this blog in arguing it in the comments. NOT GONNA HAPPEN PEOPLE.

So, after getting a message via my Fat Heffalump FB page last night asking me to recommend fat acceptance blogs for women who are “not obese” (after all, who wants to have to look at and hear from those ICKY FATTIES, EWWWWWW!) and then got shitty at me when I told her she was being incredibly offensive, thin privilege has been at the front of my mind.

Today this article was published on the otherwise excellent Lip Magazine. I don’t normally link to bad stuff, but Lip is usually so very good that I’ll give it this time.

First off, let’s acknowledge how transphobic that image is at the header of the article, and I won’t get started on that topic, we’ll save that for another blog.

What I really want to talk about is how INCREDIBLY privilege denying the piece is. I was going to comment on the article but I think it needs expanding upon, so here we are.

Yes, I agree, the “real women” trope should die in a fire. Besides, I’m not curvy, I’m fucking fat. Big ole fat, fat, fat, Fatty McFattersons. I don’t have “curves”, I have rolls and lumps and thick bits and chunks. I’m just as real as any other woman.

Yes, I agree, nobody, thin, fat or in-between should be judged on their body shape or size.

But I have a real problem with how the author has framed this as supposedly unacceptable to comment on a fat person’s body. To quote:

“Why, though, is it OK to tell someone that their natural shape is too skinny, but not that they’re too fat?”

I’d like to call bullshit on this particular assumption. As a fat woman, not a day goes by without my body being used as a representation of greed, laziness, gluttony. Not a day goes by without my body being held up in the media as an “epidemic” to be cured/prevented/eradicated. Not a day goes by without someone making some kind of rude statement about my body. Every day I deal with complete strangers calling me a “fat bitch” (or worse), people spitting at me, throwing things from cars, supposedly respectable adults making comments about how I am “disgusting” because I have a fat body. Doctors refuse to treat fat patients, insurers refuse to insure fat customers, we are kicked off flights or forced to buy second seats, we are discriminated in the workplace, vilified by the press and generally just treated as less than human.

It IS totally culturally acceptable for people to judge fat bodies, but not just judge them – vilify and demonise them. In fact, I’d go so far as saying it’s currently culturally mandatory – because look at how people react when fat activists dare to stand up and say “No, I am a human being and deserve to be treated as one!” The amount of vitriol and hatred any visible fat person gets is testament to that.

Thin bodies do not get this kind of social stigmatisation at a systemic level. So PLEASE do not imply that it is “not ok to tell people they are too fat” – when it is EVERYWHERE in our culture.

This is not a matter of thin vs fat. It is a matter of reclaiming our bodies as acceptable no matter what size or shape they are, and getting rid of tropes that label one type of woman as more real than another. But until fat people are treated as equal human beings to not-fat people, thin privilege will always exist.

I did something very foolish today. I read the letters to the editor in response to the article about Zoe and I in the U on Sunday magazine. I know, I know, I should know better, but I had been told that they were “overwhelmingly positive”, so I had hoped to see a few gems in there to restore my faith in humanity.

Ahh but how wrong I was. Out of the five letters published, one was overwhelmingly positive, three of them pulled the old “I applaud Kath and Zoe but…” switcheroo (if it wasn’t “but”, it was “however” or “nevertheless”) and one claimed to know that we are “hiding behind” our fat positivity and endangering ourselves and others.

It makes me wonder – can these people (other than the positive one, thank you Cathy Forbes of Twin Waters – YOU ROCK!) not read? Do they have comprehension issues? Did they even read the article?

Firstly, let’s address the but/however/nonetheless phenomenon. If you are saying one thing, and then tacking on a but/however/nonetheless afterwards, you’re actually negating the first part. So if you say, and I quote FJ Mead of Seventeen Mile Rocks:

“While I feel happy for these large women who are comfortable with their size, it is ignorant to believe they will not be a burden to the health system later in life.”

FJ, FJ, FJ… you are in fact NOT happy for us at all, as you think we are ignorant and will end up being a burden to the health system. You can’t have both m’dear. Either come out and say it and show your loathing for fat people, or shut up. Don’t hide behind false statements of “I feel happy for them” when you clearly do not. FJ also thinks that we “aspire” to morbid obesity, or are encouraging others to “aspire” to it. Sorry FJ, the only thing we aspire to is to be treated like human beings and not have random strangers decide what our health is simply by looking at us.

Then there is D. Hudson from Park Ridge who knows my body, and that of every fat person better than we do ourselves. D. states “For fat people, every movement is an effort…” Really D. Hudson? This is the first I’ve heard that every movement I make is an effort. Aren’t I lucky you came along to tell me at almost 40 years of age that I don’t in fact feel great, that I have been wrong all along and am in fact struggling under the effort of having a fat body. D. is also absolutely adamant that our lifespan in general is shortened. Really? So like some kind of fat Logan’s run, the minute a fat person gets to a certain size, the little light switches on and off we must go to have our lifespans shortened. Don’t mind me, I just have to go pick up my 83 year old fat grandma, she’s over-lived her stay! D. also believes that it’s our fault that we can’t find stylish/affordable clothes and that some of us (though D. seems to sweep all fatties into this pile) may find sitting in a cinema or plane uncomfortable. Perhaps D., it’s the fact that society refuses to include us as people that causes the lack of stylish/affordable clothing and seats that are comfortable, not our actual bodies? The real irony is that D. Hudson says it’s “great to see they are also committing themselves to a life of healthy eating and activity” (no I’m not, if I want a donut or a lie in, I’ll have one, the same as if I want a salad or a ride on my bike, I’ll have that too) and then goes on to blather all of the stuff above, as if despite our supposed commitment, we should somehow still be ashamed/unhappy because of our fatness. How does that even make sense?

The same goes for Matt Smith of Kedron, who states “Ultimately, excessive weight will always adversely affect one’s health.” Really? You know that for 100% of cases Matt Smith (are you a Doctor Matt? Wait, aren’t you THE Doctor??) that every single fat person will have negative health CAUSED by their weight? Because as the article states, there is no proof of causation of negative health by weight. So clearly, Matt Smith, you must be better qualified than every other academic who has researched the topic and found the opposite to your claims. Why aren’t you publishing your findings Matt? Strangely, Matt then ends his letter by wishing us well, despite having labelled us “irresponsible” and then wished us negative health simply because we’re fat and he wants it to be true that we will suffer poor health.

The big fat cherry on the top goes to Katie Tartare (OMG, do you know the calories in tartare sauce??) from Kanimbla in Cairns, who has decided that Zoe and I are “hiding behind” our self esteem. Katie equates living in a fat body with endangering our health through excess alcohol or drug intake, as though fatness is some kind of addiction. Perhaps Katie thinks we are “addicted” to food, a common misconception among fat hating douchecanoes, despite repeated studies showing that fat people eat no more than not-fat people, and in fact some studies show we actually eat less, especially those of us who reject dieting and attempting to lose weight. Not to mention that food is vital to life.

I think I know the problem. We fat activists dare to believe that we’re people. We dare to believe that we should be able to live our lives with as much freedom, respect and dignity as any other person. We dare to believe that our health is our own business, and that health has no moral value. We dare to believe that we know our own bodies, what they are capable of and how to look after them in whatever shape or form they happen to be at any given time. And finally we dare to be present in the world, without hiding ourselves away in shame and apologising for our bodies.

And we can’t have that now, can we?

Look, if you hate fat people, and are all grossed out by our icky fatness and don’t want your eyesight marred by something that you find so repulsive, then just come out and say it. Have the guts to be honest, not just with the world, but with yourself. Stop hiding behind “What about your health?!” bullshit, you honestly don’t care about my health, or that of any other fat person. You couldn’t give a flying fuck about what it feels like to live in a fat body, what happens to fat people and whether or not we die early. In fact, it would suit you just nicely if we were to all just up and die this minute, because then you wouldn’t have to see our fatness in the world, you wouldn’t have to deal with those gross fatties at all. Let your friends, family, colleagues and other life acquaintances see just what kind of person you are, stop pretending that you CARE. Because you could not care one bit about fat people other than to remove us from the world.

But most of all, have the guts to own up to being an arsehole who thinks that other people have to be attractive to YOU to deserve to inhabit this world.

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Anyone who trolls this blog with hateful messages and bullying of fat people will have those comments, along with their IP addresses, email addresses and any other details sent to their mothers, employers, school administration and other people I can track down in their lives.

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